Samuel R. Watkins

Samuel Rush Watkins (26 June 1839-20 July 1901) was a Confederate States Army corporal during the American Civil War. He was known for his 1882 memoir Co. Aytch, recounting his life as a soldier in the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment during the war.

Biography
Samuel Rush Watkins was born in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee in 1839, and he rushed to join the Confederate States Army when his state left the Union at the start of the American Civil War in 1861. He fought in several battles from the 1862 Battle of Shiloh to the 1864 Battle of Nashville, serving in Company H of the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment. He was one of only seven men from the company who survived to surrender to William T. Sherman in 1865, and he published his memoirs, Co. Aytch, in 1882. He died in Maury County, Tennessee in 1901 at the age of 62.